In a highly automated operation such as may be employed by a large organization, payments for amounts owed to the organization from customers thereof may commonly be received electronically. Typically, then, the organization operates a payment site on an inter-network system such as the Internet, and a particular customer electronically visits the payment site to effectuate an electronic payment transaction for an amount owed by such customer to such organization. Typically, although not necessarily, such electronic payment transaction by the particular customer includes an electronic credit of funds to the organization and a corresponding electronic debit of the funds from an account of the particular customer. The account of the particular customer may be an identified bank account of the customer, an identified credit account of the customer, or the like.
Notably, such an electronic payment transaction is not a real-time or near-real-time (hereinafter, ‘real-time’) transaction inasmuch as the electronic debit of the funds from the account of the customer does not take place during such transaction. Instead, and typically, the electronic transaction creates a batch item requesting the electronic debit of the funds, where the batch item is aggregated with other batch items requesting electronic debits of funds from other customers into a batch, and where the batch with the batch items is not processed until a later time. For example, all batch items created up until a cut-off time such as 12 NOON local time for a particular day may be aggregated into a batch that is processed at a process time such as 9 PM local time that day.
As should be appreciated, an electronic payment transaction performed by a customer is not actually applied to the customer until the process time at which the corresponding batch item is processed. Thus, an electronic payment transaction performed by a customer before 12 NOON on a particular day according to the above example would be processed and applied to the customer that particular day. However, an electronic payment transaction performed by the customer after 12 NOON on that particular day according to the above example would be processed and applied to the customer the next day.
In the latter case, where the transaction is performed after the cut-off time, a problem arises for the customer if the payment is due that particular day. In such a circumstance, although the electronic payment transaction is performed on the day that the payment is due, the corresponding batch item is aggregated into a batch that is processed the next day. As a result, the payment is applied to the customer that next day, which is the day after the payment was due, with the result being that the applied payment is considered by the organization to be late.
As should be understood, such a late payment may result in the customer being assessed a late fee and/or other late charges. Perhaps understandably, the customer is unhappy with the payment being considered late, especially inasmuch as the transaction was performed before the end of the payment due date, and may complain to the organization. As a result, the customer may view the organization harshly, and perhaps conduct future business elsewhere. Of course, the organization may attempt to placate the unhappy customer by manually removing the late fees and/or other charges, but doing so usually requires a manual transaction with corresponding costs in time and effort to both the customer and the organization.
Accordingly, a need exists for systems and methods that allow the organization to conduct real-time application of electronic payments from customers so that funds from a payment transaction with a customer are applied to the customer on the date of the payment transaction. More particularly, a need exists for such systems and methods that allow the organization to conduct both real-time application of an electronic payment from a customer who is conducting a payment transaction on the day payment is due, and also non-real-time application of an electronic payment from a customer who is conducting a payment transaction prior to the day payment is due.